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NASAThe Innovative Advanced Concepts Program is advancing six “science fiction-like” space technology projects, including a lunar railway and a liquid telescope.

Six visionary concept studies were selected by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program for additional funding and development. Each study has now completed NIAC’s initial phase, showing their futuristic ideas — such as a lunar rail system and liquid-based telescopes — can provide fresh perspectives and approaches as NASA explores the unknown in space.

NIAC’s Phase II concept studies will receive up to $600,000 to continue work over the next two years to address key remaining technical and budgetary hurdles and pave the way to development. When Phase II is complete, these studies can move to the final phase of NIAC, earning additional funding and development considerations to become a future aerospace mission.

“These diverse, science fiction-like concepts represent a fantastic class of Phase II studies,” said John Nelson, executive director of the NIAC program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our NIAC collaborators never cease to amaze and inspire, and this class certainly gives NASA a lot to think about in terms of what’s possible in the future.”

The six concepts selected for the 2024 NIAC Phase II Awards are:

• Fluid Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the next generation of large space observatories will create a large optical observatory in space using fluid shaping of ionic liquids. These space-based observatories could potentially help investigate NASA’s highest-priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first-generation stars and young galaxies. The FLUTE study is led by Edward Balaban of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
• Impulse Plasma Rocket: Shielded, Fast Human Transits to Mars is an innovative propulsion system that relies on the use of fission-generated bundles of plasma for traction. This innovative system could significantly reduce the travel time between Earth and any destination in the solar system. This study was led by Brianna Clements with Howe Industries in Scottsdale, Arizona.
• The Large Long Wave Observatory (GO-LoW) could change the way NASA conducts astronomy. This mega-constellation low-frequency radio telescope uses thousands of autonomous small satellites capable of measuring the magnetic fields emitted by exoplanets and cosmic dark ages. GO-LoW is led by Mary Knapp with MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• The Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cell Power Generator is exploring new energy sources in space, potentially operating at higher efficiency than NASA’s legacy power generators. This technology could enable small research and scientific spacecraft in the future that cannot carry bulky solar or nuclear power systems. This study of the power generation concept is by Stephen Pauley of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
• FLOAT: A flexible rail levitation will be a lunar rail system providing reliable, autonomous and efficient payload transportation on the Moon. This rail system could support the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base as soon as 2030. Ethan Schaller directs FLOAT at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
• The ScienceCraft for exploring the outer planets distributes quantum dot-based sensors over the entire surface of a solar sail, enabling it to become an innovative imaging tool. Quantum physics would allow NASA to make scientific measurements by studying how dots absorb light. By using the area of ​​the solar sail, this allows lighter, more cost-effective spacecraft to carry images throughout the solar system. ScienceCraft is led by NASA’s Mahmoud Sultana at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA’s Space Technology Directorate funds the NIAC program as it is responsible for developing new cross-sector technologies and capabilities for the agency to achieve its current and future missions.

To learn more about NIAC and the 2024 Phase II studies, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-the-nasa-innovative-advanced-concepts-niac/